C15 - The Ferment of Reform and Culture 1790-1860 Flashcards
James Russell Lowell
One of America’s better poets. Famous for his 1846 “Biglow Papers”: political satire (cartoons)
Knickerbocker group
3 of the first American writers of literature and novels: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant.
Louis Agassiz
Swiss born biologist, doctor and geologist who came to teach at Harvard.
Women’s Rights Convention
1848: NY. Elizabeth Stanton read Declaration of Sentiments” which said that all men and women were created equal.
Also demanded women’s right to vote.
Charles G. Finney
Great revivalist preacher in 1830s. Held huge revivals. Invented the anxious bench where sinners could repent before the congregation. Against alcohol and slavery.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Taught anatomy at Harvard Medical School, but also a fascinating conversationalist and speaker.
Brigham Young
1846-1847 a new leader Brigham Young led his followers to Utah to escape bad treatment. He had 27 wives.
The Mormons created a thriving society by 1850.
Because of polygamy, Utah was not named a state until 1896. The US outlawed polygamy.
Washington Irving
1st American to become known internationally as an American writer. Wrote Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Francis Parkman
Wrote history books in 1851 about the struggle between Britain and France for power in America.
Maine Law
1851: Was one of first laws regarding temperance.
Gilbert Stuart
American painter from Rhode Island. Was one of America’s most famous portrait painters.
Edgar Allan Poe
One writer who did not believe in human goodness and social progress like most other writers of his time.
He was orphaned at an early age, was in poor health, married a 13-year-old girl who later died of tuberculosis. He suffered hunger, cold, poverty and debt. An alcoholic.
Wrote the “Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Wrote ghastly works and horror.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Novelist/author. One book was Blithedale Romance in 1852.
Heavy Puritan/Calvinist themes. Wrote the “Scarlett Letter”.
Themes included exploring the presence of evil.
Deism
Believed in reason and science more than the Bible. They still believed in God/a supreme being.
Sparked movement from severe Puritanism of the past to Unitarianism, a believe that God is 1 person. Also that people can gain salvation through good works and living morally. Appealed to intellectuals as more reasonable.
Mormons
- A rugged visionary said he had received gold plates from an angel. They became the Book of Mormon and launched the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). This was a new American-born religion.
Mormons were treated badly because others disagreed with their beliefs, especially polygamy. 1844: Joseph Smith and his brother were killed in IL.
Phineas T. Barnum
Founded P.T. Barnum Circus.
Second Great Awakening
1800: boiling reaction against growing liberalism (Deism and Unitarianism) in religion. Swept across the south and some Northeastern cities.
Encouraged energized evangelism and rousing emotionalism and influenced movements like the women’s movement, temperance cause, prison reform and anti-slavery movement.
Huge camp meetings would sometimes have 25,000 people listening to “hellfire” gospels for days. Some people would “get religion” and have frenzies of rolling, dancing and jerking as they were being “saved”.
Methodists and Baptists gathered the most new members through this revivalist movement. They stressed “personal conversion” or being saved as ways to get to heaven, not predestination.
Peter Cartwright was best known traveling preacher. With bellowing voice and flailing arms, he demanded that sinners should repent and converted many souls to the lord.
Charles Grandison Finney was the greatest revival preacher - led massive revivals in 1830s.
Key to the Second Great Awakening movement was making women more important in religion.
Joseph Smith
- A rugged visionary said he had received gold plates from an angel. They became the Book of Mormon and launched the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons). This was a new American-born religion.
Mormons were treated badly because others disagreed with their beliefs, especially polygamy. 1844: Joseph Smith and his brother were killed in IL.
1846-1847 a new leader Brigham Young led his followers to Utah to escape bad treatment. He had 27 wives.
The Mormons created a thriving society by 1850.
Because of polygamy, Utah was not named a state until 1896. The US outlawed polygamy.
Henry David Thoreau
Close friend of Emmerson - a poet and transcendentalist and anti-slavery. Wrote “Walden: Or Life in the Woods” in 1854. Also wrote “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”.
His writings influenced later leaders like Martin Luther King.
Emma Willard
Established one of the first colleges for women: Troy Female Seminary.
Stephen Foster
Known as “Father of American Music” Wrote Camptown Races, Old Folks at Home, My Kentucky Home.
Shakers
Religious community started in 1770s. 6000 members by 1840. They prohibited marriage and therefore became extinct (no new babies born into their group) by 1940.
James Fenimiore Cooper
First American novelist to gain wide recognition. Wrote Last of the Mohicans, The Spy and Leatherstocking Tales.
Horace Greeley
American newspaper editor. Outspoken against slavery.
Herman Melville
Orphaned and ill-educated. He wrote Moby Dick in 1851, which was not popular until after his death.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Not a transcendentalist, but influenced by the movement. Taught at Harvard and was one of the most popular American poets ever.
Hudson River School
Art school that specialized in painting natural landscapes.
Declaration of Sentiments
Elizabeth Cady Stanton read these at the Women’s rights convention. Said that all men AND women were equal.
Walt Whitman
Bold, brassy, from Brooklyn NY. Wrote Leaves of Grass in 1855, a collection of poems. Romantic, emotional and unconventional and wrote frankly about sex. His book was banned in Boston.
Peter Cartwright
Methodist religious revivalist.
Dorothea Dix
Fought for better treatment of mentally ill people. They had been treated terribly, chained in dirty prisons. She pushed the idea that they were ill, not purposely criminal.
John J. Audubon
Bird lover who published “Birds of America”. The Audubon society for the protection of birds was named after him.
Unitarianism
movement from severe Puritanism of the past to Unitarianism, a believe that God is 1 person. Also that people can gain salvation through good works and living morally. Appealed to intellectuals as more reasonable.
Susan B. Anthony
Quaker and militant speaker on women’s rights.
Burned-Over District
Religious scene in NY in early 1800s.
Noah Webster
1828, published first dictionary - took 20 years to write it.
Also published school books that were popular for children.
Millerites
Followers of William Miller who preached about the Second coming of Jesus Christ- to happen in 1843.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Writer and poet who wrote from the perspective of transcendentalism. He was a favorite speaker and gave an address at Harvard called The American Scholar.
By 1850s he was outspoken against slavery.
He wrote about self reliance, self-improvement, optimism and freedom, all themes that were popular.
Horace Mann
Secretary of MA Board of Education, he pushed for great improvements for public education.
William H. Prescott
Wrote history books about military actions in Mexico and Peru.
Neal Dow
Father of prohibition. Sponsored Maine law of 1851, outlawing production of alcohol.
John Greenleaf Whittier
Writer who was very strongly against slavery and became very influential, prompting social action against slavery. He was the poet of human freedom.
William Cullen Bryant
One of the first American poets.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Mother of 7 who insisted on leaving the word “obey” out of her wedding vows…a women’s rights advocate.
William Gilmore Simms
Most famous writer from the South before the Civil War. Wrote 82 books with themes that dealt with the southern frontier during colonial days and during the revolutionary war.
American Temperance Society
Formed in 1826 in Boston. A movement to encourage people to drink alcohol in moderation.
This was a reaction to the bad effects being caused in society by drunkenness. Destroyed families, caused accidents and missed days at work, etc.
Robert Owen
1825 formed a communal/group society in Indiana. He believed in early socialist thought.
Lucretia Mott
Became mad when she and fellow women at the London antislavery convention of 1840 were not recognized.
William H. McGuffey
Wrote school books.
transcendentalism
1830s: Religious and philosophical movement. Believed in inherent goodness of people and nature and did not like organized religion.
Early Colleges/Universities
University of Virginia, founded in 1819. Brainchild of Thomas Jefferson. Focused on freedom of religion, modern languages and the sciences.
Women’s universities started in 1820s and 1830s (there was still some bias against women being educated…some thought their place was in the home). Eg. Troy Female Seminary in New York, Oberlin College in Ohio and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts (started by Mary Lyon).
lyceum lecture associations
By 1835 there were 300 of these groups that traveled and lectured to groups to educate on topics like science, literature and moral philosophy. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one.
Louisa May Alcott & Emily Dickinson
Alcott wrote “Little Women” - she wrote to help support her family.
Dickinson lived as a recluse (alone) but created her own original world through poetry. She refused to publish any of her poetry while alive. All was published after her death.
George Bancroft
Called “Father of American History” as he was the first author to research/write American history books.
Also was Secretary of the Navy and founded the Naval Academy in 1845/
